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Gollon: Offshore wind power is necessary for New York

By: Commentary February 7, 2018Comments Off on Gollon: Offshore wind power is necessary for New York

Gov. Cuomo is right to set ambitious targets for New York’s renewable energy future, with Long Island leading the way in offshore wind.

Continued investments in renewable energy are necessary to insure our future against unabated climate change. There is no question about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels: more destructive storms, rising seas that erode coastal real estate and imperil our fresh water supply, and decimation of the marine ecosystems that support fisheries and marine wildlife.

Which renewable energy sources will get us to a clean energy future? The two candidates for Long Island are solar and offshore wind.

Long Island has led the state with over 40,000 rooftop solar installations, which reduce the homeowner’s electric bill and replace electricity from fossil fuels with clean energy from the sun. We will continue to add solar in the coming years. But there aren’t enough rooftops and parking lots to achieve our renewable energy goals with solar alone, because Long Island lacks suitable large land parcels on which to site the needed utility-scale solar arrays totaling many square miles.

Offshore wind farms, developed in Europe over the past two decades, can produce clean energy in the quantities needed. And happily, the wind speed and turbine output pick up in the late afternoon just when our demand for electricity peaks and the sun is setting and solar power is disappearing.

Last year wind power supplied 44 percent of Denmark’s electrical energy. Wind technology is advancing rapidly, with larger and more efficient turbines coming online at a surprisingly fast pace.

Offshore wind also provides economic benefits throughout its supply chain and operation. Wind projects off the shores of Long Island will provide local jobs in construction and maintenance. For example, the 90 megawatt Deepwater Wind project off Montauk will base its operations and maintenance hub in East Hampton. The company will also provide several million dollars for local environmental marine and fisheries habitat protection. Larger projects will provide more jobs and financial benefits to nearby shore communities.

When the U.S. achieves scale from a series of large (400+ megawatts each) offshore wind projects as planned by New York and other nearby states, offshore wind will follow the European path of cost reduction and become less expensive than fossil fuel generation. Costs will continue to decline even further with additional economies of scale and the advancement of turbine size and technology.

Offshore wind is a practical and effective power technology that Long Island – and the nation – urgently need. We look forward to rapid progress by New York State, the federal government, and the various developers that have set up shop here.